Friday, 31 January 2014

On my first day of uni we were all taken into a room full of shoes and asked to pick one to take apart. To my flatmate Ari's horror, I chose a sneaker made by the brand GUESS (she's a Guess addict and almost cried when she saw the corpse of what once was a Guess shoe).

Taking the shoe apart was very eye opening, I discovered so many hidden parts that keep the shoe together, stable and comfortable.

Here's some pictures I took for my tech file. If you're squeamish about dismembered shoes then look away now.

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

I've been meaning to share this picture with you for a while now. I got the most amazing present from one of my fav human beings, Wensdi, for Christmas. Wensdi is an illustrator with a mischievous imagination, you might remember her work from this post.

Recently Wensdi created a character called Cheryl Cobb, a creepy but well meaning little boy who just wants some friends to play with! For my present, Wensdi gave me a framed illustration of me meeting Cheryl and his dead cat friend - Mr Soot. Don't worry, I won't be taking any shoe design advice from Cheryl - I think he took "cat shoes" a little too literally.

This is one of my fav presents I've ever received. Wensdi even drew tiny bears on my shoes (like the first ever set of shoes I painted!).

Thursday, 23 January 2014

Earlier this year CAT footwear launched a footwear competition to redesign their Colorado boot. Being a bit of a boot enthusiast I got a little excited at the thought of designing for such an awesome brand. I love that CAT are now branching out from their famous work boots and collaborating with young designers and I feel so lucky that I had the opportunity to meet the designers and the creative minds behind CAT when they visited my uni.

There's just something about a chunky, work style boot that screams camo at me. So my main influence for these designs was camo with a twist. Don't worry though guys, I threw some kawaii pizzas and hot dogs in for good measure. I've seen a few fashion bloggers styling the Colorado boot perfectly with crazy, colourful fashion choices, so it seemed natural to pull some of that energy into the boot design too.

The design I actually submitted to the competition was the third one, as I think it's a good middle ground between my usual garish, busy, colourful style and CAT's more reserved designs.

I'm still awaiting the competition results and have all my fingers and toes crossed. I'd love to work with CAT some day in the not so distant future.

Saturday, 18 January 2014

BMO seems to be one of the most popular requests for my Adventure Time shoes, which is no surprise because BMO is one of the cutest characters on the show. I recently realized it's about time I show BMO some love on my blog, so here are my fav BMO Etsy goodies.

Tuesday, 14 January 2014

After months of trying to get some illustrations together, I've finally launched my first cards on Etsy just in time for Valentines Day. I'm still awaiting the final cards from the printers so there will be some proper previews soon! In the mean time, you can pre-order the cards now from my Etsy Shop.

These sushi cat cards will be available all year round, and there will be more sushi cat love to come over the next few weeks.

Sunday, 12 January 2014

It's no secret that I'm a big meme geek. The doge meme still has me in fits of giggles on an almost daily basis.. I can't even explain why I find it so funny. It's pretty much taking over my life and I find it hard to write like a normal person these days. So naturally, I've gotta draw that cute little shibe.

Saturday, 11 January 2014

I'm finally getting around to posting a portrait I made for my two of my fav people Wensdi & her fiance Andrew. I had fun using textures in this illustration, not to mention drawing their cute but evil companion, hypno elephant.

Thursday, 9 January 2014

I'm back in London after a relaxing couple of weeks back up north. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things with uni work, I'm so excited that I get to make my first whole pair of shoes this term! Today I'm taking a little time to relax and work on some personal illustration work. Yep you guessed it, more sushi cats!

Here's a close up of some of the details I've been working on. You can find my first sushi cat post here.

Saturday, 4 January 2014

Have you seen these pictures/videos of sushi cats by Nekozushi yet? Ever since I first saw them I've been wanting to draw them. Here's the first cat sushi illustration in progress, the cat and lobster need a lot more detail adding but I'm really happy with the rice.